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arts & culture
KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017
Aries (March 21-April 19) Take action with friends. Pitch in for a common cause. There's more money coming in over the next month, with the Sun in Taurus.
Taurus
(April 20-May 20) Career opportunities get revealed today and tomorrow. Your confidence increases this month with the Sun in your sign. You're in your element, with an advantage. Take charge.
Gemini
(May 21-June 20)
Today and tomorrow favor travel, research and adventure. Don't rely on an unstable source. Confirm reservations and con-
reservations and connections. Enjoy peaceful contemplation this month with Taurus Sun.
Cancer
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN
(June 21-July 22)
Changes necessitate budget revisions. Pay bills and manage financial obligations today and tomorrow.
You're especially popular this month, under the Taurus Sun. Pull together.
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22)
Rely on a strong partner over the next few days.
For the next month with the Sun in Taurus, advance your professional agenda.
Grab an opportunity.
Virgo
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Put your back into it. Physical action provides satisfying results. Dig into a big job. Travel beckons, under the Taurus Sun this month.
Expand your influence.
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Recreation and relaxation
call your name through tomorrow. Celebrate with people you love. Bring home the family bacon over the next month with Taurus Sun
Megan Murphy is a senior studying visual arts. Her piece called "Suppressions" was exhibited in the Kansas Union Gallery earlier this month.
Scorpio
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Domestic matters have your attention. Clean up a mess. Develop and strengthen partnerships this month, with the Sun in Taurus. Together, you're more powerful.
Sagittarius
v. 22-Dec 21
more powerful.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Practice your creative skills through tomorrow. Physical action heats up over the next month with the Sun in Taurus. Build strength and vitality.
Capricorn
vitality.
(Dec. 22-Jan.19) Positive cash flow provides a morale boost through tomorrow. You're especially lucky in love this month with the Sun in Taurus. Savor family, friends and
Aquarius 20-Feb.18
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb.18) Polish your presentation. You're in the spotlight today and tomorrow. Fix up your place this month under the Taurus Sun. Increase your family's comfort.
comfort.
Pisces
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Slow down over me next two days. Rest and recharge. Communications surge with the Sun in Taurus this month. Private time prepares for public
discourse.
Senior delves into a taboo world with clay
GUS HUNNINGHAKE
@gushunninghake
Megan Murphy, a senior from the Philippines, has spent the last few years of her college career working on clay figures that personify hidden and abstract human emotions.
Her time and development toward her craft recently culminated in a piece called "Suppressions," a clay-based work on that was on display earlier this month at the Kansas Union Gallery.
For Murphy, her artwork, and especially her most recent clay sculptures, follows her own personal statement that she said she hopes to bring out in every piece she creates.
"I figured that we live in this really rigid, constructed society where there's so many taboo things that we don't address and hide," Murphy said. "And that's
what I tackle in my work."
Since she was exposed to different forms of art as a child, Murphy found it natural to take art classes in high school. She also got involved with her school's student newspaper by drawing cartoons.
Once she got to college, she continued her involvement by deciding to major in visual arts. There was a period of time, however, when this track didn't seem right for her.
"For a brief period, I transferred to photo media, which is in the design school," Murphy said. "But I continued to take studio classes."
Murphy's experience in art up to this point contained mostly drawing and painting, but she said she wasn't finding much meaning. It wasn't until her sophomore year at the University that she decided to take a sculpture class.
even though I wasn't in the visual department, and my teacher brought in this alumni who was a bronze sculptor. I asked him, 'Do you ever doubt yourself?' And he said, 'Oh, every day.'"
"I took a sculpture class,
She added that at that point, she had to leave the classroom.
"And I called my grandpa and I said, 'I'm going back to visual arts,'" she said.
The speaker revitalized Murphy's wish to return to visual arts on more than just a mental level. His speech made her jealous, but in a constructive way that pushed her back on track.
"I got real emotional when he was talking to us," Murphy said. "He was able to talk about all this stuff that he was doing right now. He's doing what he loves, and I was jealous of that, so then I decided that I would go back."
Two years later, Murphy is finishing up her final year as an undergraduate student. She's put her work in exhibitions around campus, as well as in the Kansas City Arts Coalition's Undergraduate College Student Exhibition.
"I delivered my pieces there on Saturday," Murphy said. "And I saw all these other pieces that people had delivered, mostly paintings, and I thought that their work was so good. I was almost like touched that my work was placed in the same level as them."
Like others in the Lawrence art community, University ceramics professor Marshall Maude sees a high quality in Murphy's work.
Maude, who's known Murphy for two years, has had plenty of time to see her work develop.
"I've been really impressed with the progress that she's made just in the last six months," Maude
said. "The preparation that she's done for the show has been exceptional. Her modeling of the figure has improved so much, [as well as] her subject matter and the content and her conceptualization of her work. Ever since this semester started she's been working a lot."
*mireva Rosenthal/KANSAN*
Kelly Corcoran is the owner of Love Garden Sounds, a record store in downtown Lawndale and KANSAN sounds is celebrating Record Store Day by having exclusive records on sale and a coupon when you spend over $50.
When it comes to her work, Murphy finds ways to connect her ideas and statements in more than just her designs. To her, the clay itself plays just as big of a role.
"There's a direct correlation with the material I use," Murphy said. "It starts off as this soft material and I'm able to mold it however I want. I make these bodies and I chop them up once they reach a certain dryness, and then I scoop out the insides. So, there are all these dismembered body parts around me, and then I put them back together. Which is kind of a metaphor in and of itself."
Ahead of Record Store Day, Love Garden Sounds reminds us why vinyl is back in fashion
BRITTANIE SMITH
@brittens_smith
When someone walks into Love Garden Sounds a record store on Massachusetts Street they get hit with a little burst of nostalgia. Over 30,000 vinyl records and CDs line the walls and tables, from old bands to new. If you're lucky, you may catch one of the shop's three cats, Sam, Chardonnay and Stuffing, lounging around atop of the shelves.
Record Store Day is on Saturday, April 22, and Love Garden Sounds is participating in the annual day of celebration and has been for the past ten years.
Owner Kelly Corcoran said Love Garden Sourds sells exclusive records that day as a part of the celebration. In previous years, they've had over 100 people line up at the door before the store opened because of the yearly event.
Corcoran said he thinks that the tangibility of vinyl
is what has made them so popular again in our "of the moment society." The object takes up physical space rather than storage on your phone.
"Records reinforce taste you already have and maybe legitimizes an album that you care about," Corcoran said. "Having it being pressed on this grander format, when you hold it, it's very substantial. It reinforces that this music has value."
He said that there is a ceremonial feeling to "selecting a record, taking it out of however it's stored and presenting it on the turn table." Corcoran described how the needle and groove interact to make sound as being both fantastical and mysterious.
Allie Heiner is a freshman studying applied behavioral science. She is a frequent shopper at Love Garden Sounds, and said that she tries to go there at least twice a month. Although she wasn't familiar with Record Store Day before, Heiner is
looking forward to this year's celebration.
She also said that there is something unique about the way you have to listen to a record because you can't skip tracks. It makes you to listen to the album in the way the artist intended.
Heiner has been building her collection of vinyls since her junior year in high school. She said she believes that a big part of the trend-
Heiner said that her favorite records are ones that have been passed down from family members. She's received Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, The Kinks and Janice Joplin records from her grandparents and aunt.
Corcoran said that his favorite record is the Metal Box album by Public Image
iness is the "hipster feel of them and the big artwork on the covers."
Limited, because he bought it for his wife during their early years of dating and he is connected to it emotionally.
Music enthusiasts will have a chance to find their special record Saturday. For more information about Record Store Day specials and Love Garden Sounds, visit the store's website.
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